THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

'the soils, alkali, and water, necessary preliminary work in a new State, and has studied, in collaboration with the agriculturist, the effect of alkali on the germination of seeds and growth of plants. The agriculturist has studied methods of irrigation and especially the duty of water as a basis for future legislation on water rights.

The botanist has conducted experiments on the influence of altitude on the loss of water by transpiration, by which it was shown that the winterkilling of trees in Wyoming is largely due to excessive evaporation. The same officer has made a general survey of the weeds of the State and a particular study of the squirrel-tail grass, one of the stock pests of Wyoming. Studies have been made of methods of exterminating the ground squirrel, which does much damage in the State. The chemist has made a study of the composition of numerous cereal foods. Experiments with sugar beets were carried on for a number of years in cooperation with farmers in different parts of the State. In this work, as well as in that on irrigation, the station has been associated with the United States Department of Agriculture.

DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION.

The station has issued 41 regular bulletins, a few press bulletins and circulars of information, and 9 annual reports. From 1891 to 1898 the annual reports included only administrative details, all results of experiments being published in bulletins and bound with the annual report. A new policy was adopted in 1898-99, according to which all technical matter will be published in the form of papers appended to the annual report, and bulletins will be of a popular character only.

The geologist, botanist, agriculturist, and chemist have contributed many articles to scientific periodicals. The station mailing list contains 2,500 names. The correspondence amounts to about 1,500 letters a year. The farming population of the State is at present so small and scattered that no farmers' institute work has as yet been undertaken.

GENERAL RESULTS OF WORK.

The Wyoming Station has done considerable useful work in determining the agricultural capabilities of the State and showing how difficulties in the way of agriculture met by settlers in an arid region of high elevation may be overcome. oats, and root crops may be successfully grown at relatively high It has shown that alfalfa, wheat, altitudes by proper methods of culture and intelligent choice of varieties. By calling attention to the dangers attending improper irrigation and the means of preventing the rise of alkali by drainage the station has prevented much loss and promoted settlement. The introduction of Bromus inermis and of improved varieties of fruits has been of much value. In general the station has helped to demonstrate that mixed farming under irrigation may be profitably united with grazing, and has thus pointed out the direction in which the development of the agricultural interests of the State should proceed.

APPENDIX.

INSPECTION OF AGRICULTURAL MATERIALS IN THE UNITED

STATES.

INSPECTION WORK OF THE STATIONS.

The inspection of materials useful in agriculture is one of the most important features of the work done by the experiment stations. The amount and variety of this work is increasing yearly. The first established and still the most extensive and important is the fertilizer inspection, but feeding-stuffs controls are being rapidly multiplied, and the list of inspected articles now includes, in addition to fertilizers and feeding stuffs, human foods (including dairy products), seeds, Paris green, dairy apparatus, nursery stock, and domestic animals.

The following is a summary of the inspection work directly or indirectly required by law of the experiment stations (or agricultural and mechanical colleges) in the different States:

ALABAMA.-The chemist of the station is required by law to make analyses of fertilizers, which are inspected by the State commissioner of agriculture.

COLORADO.-The station entomologist is ex-officio State entomologist, and determines the eligibility of the county horticultural inspectors.

CONNECTICUT.—The State Station at New Haven inspects fertilizers, foods, and feeding stuffs, under State laws. The horticulturist inspects nursery stock in orchards once annually, but this is not required by law.

ILLINOIS.-Analyses of fertilizers have been made for the State board of agriculture, which has charge of the fertilizer inspection.

INDIANA. Fertilizer inspection is in charge of the State chemist, who is also the station chemist.

IOWA. The station entomologist is also State entomologist, and inspects nursery stock.

KANSAS.-The inspection work of the station is of an indirect nature. The station veterinarian is State veterinarian, and the station entomologist gives certificates of inspection of nursery stock.

KENTUCKY.-Inspection of fertilizers and food materials by station officers, under

State law.

LOUISIANA. The station has charge of the chemical analyses under the fertilizer and Paris green law of the State, the work being done by the station under the direction of the bureau of agriculture and immigration.

MAINE. The station inspects fertilizers, feeding stuffs, and dairy apparatus, and makes seed tests, under State laws.

MARYLAND. Fertilizer and nursery inspection are placed by law in charge of officers of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, with which the station is connected.

MASSACHUSETTS.-The station, under State laws, inspects fertilizers and feeding stuffs. The station entomologist cooperates with the State board of agriculture in general against the gypsy moth, brown-tail moth, and San José scale.

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MICHIGAN. The station conducts the inspection of fertilizers under State law. MINNESOTA. The station veterinarian has charge of the veterinary work of the State board of health.

MISSOURI.-According to State law, the station has charge of the inspection of fer

tilizers.

MONTANA.-Nursery and orchard inspection is made by the station, under State law. NEW HAMPSHIRE.-Analyses of fertilizers and butter for the State board of agriculture, which has charge of the inspection of these articles.

NEW JERSEY.-Fertilizer and nursery inspection is in charge of the station.

NEW YORK. Fertilizers, concentrated feeding stuffs, and Paris green are inspected by the station at Geneva, under State law.

NORTH CAROLINA.-The station instituted work in fertilizer inspection, seed tests, nursery and orchard pests, food control, and cattle diseases, but these are now in charge of the State board of agriculture, the station cooperating to some extent in the work.

OREGON. The chemical work of dairy and food inspection is done by the station, under State law.

PENNSYLVANIA.-The station chemist is chemist of the State board of agriculture, and analyzes commercial fertilizers and to a limited extent human foods for the board.

RHODE ISLAND.—The station conducts fertilizer and feeding-stuff inspection, under State law.

SOUTH CAROLINA.-Fertilizer inspection is placed by State law under the direction of the board of managers of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. The analytical work is done by the station chemist.

TEXAS.-Analyses of fertilizers and Paris green are made under State law by the professor of chemistry of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, who is also chemist of the station.

VERMONT.—The inspection of commercial fertilizers and feeding stuffs is intrusted to the director of the station by State law. The inspection of creamery glassware and the licensing of operatives of the Babcock test, vested by law in the person of the superintendent of the dairy school, is carried on at present under station auspices. VIRGINIA.-Enforcement of quarantine regulations against cattle diseases and laws against San José scale and peach yellows is intrusted to the station, under State law. WEST VIRGINIA.-Inspection of fertilizers is done by the station, under State law. WISCONSIN. Fertilizer and orchard inspection are conducted by the station, under State law.

INSPECTION LEGISLATION AS RELATED TO THE STATIONS.

INSPECTION OF FERTILIZERS.

The trade value of the commercial fertilizers annually used in the United States probably exceeds $50,000,000. The industry has grown to these proportions within fifty years. It was but natural that a business growing so rapidly and offering such opportunities and temptations for fraud and imposition should have early become a field for extensive operations of unscrupulous and dishonest men. As the industry developed in one State after another there was an urgent demand for laws providing for the inspection of fertilizers, with a view to the prevention, or the detection and punishment, of fraud. Systematic inspection of fertilizers was first undertaken in Connecticut, under experiment-station auspices. Every State in which commercial fertilizers are used to any great extent, including all of the States east of the Mississippi River, and Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas west of that river-30 in all—has now provided for such inspection. The work in the majority of cases has been assigned to the agricultural experiment stations of the different States, and forms one of their most important and exacting duties. In some cases the stations

cooperate with the State boards of agriculture (the latter as a rule attending to administrative details), while in a few instances the inspection is entirely in the hands of the latter, or of a State chemist. With few exceptions, however, the analytical work is done in the laboratories of the experiment stations or agricultural colleges of the different States.

The various State fertilizer laws are quite similar in most of their general features. As a rule they require that there shall be affixed to each package of fertilizer placed on the market (and in most cases filed with the inspection official accompanied by a sealed sample of the fertilizer) a statement including, usually, the guaranteed composition of the fertilizer and the name and address of the manufacturer, and sometimes the net weight of the package, and other information. The inspection official designated by the law is authorized to issue licenses or certificates allowing the sale of fertilizers to the manufacturers or dealers complying with the requirements of the law; to collect (through the manufacturers and in the open market) and analyze samples of the fertilizers offered for sale; to publish the results of the analyses (with such comment and explanation as he may deem pertinent), and to prosecute violators of the law.

The laws differ mainly in the amount and manner of levying the tax, or license, or analysis fee; the form of statement of the guaranteed composition; the materials subject to inspection, and the penalty for violation. As regards the tax (or license or analysis fee), the laws are generally of two classes-those which require the payment of a fee for each brand sufficient to meet the expenses of inspection and those which provide for a tonnage tax yielding in many cases a large revenue, which in many instances is used for scientific investigations in agriculture or for the maintenance of the State boards of agriculture. The Connecticut law is fairly representative of the first class; the North Carolina law of the second. These laws are as follows:

CONNECTICUT FERTILIZER LAW.

"(1) Every person or company who shall sell, offer, or expose for sale, in this State, any commercial fertilizer or manure, except stable manure and the products of local manufacturers of less value than ten dollars a ton, shall affix conspicuously to every package thereof a plainly printed statement clearly and truly certifying the number of net pounds of fertilizer in the package, the name, brand, or trade-mark under which the fertilizer is sold, the name and address of the manufacturer, the place of manufacture, and the chemical composition of the fertilizer, expressed in the terms and manner approved and usually employed by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

"If any such fertilizer be sold in bulk, such printed statement shall accompany every lot and parcel sold, offered, or exposed for sale.

"(2) Before any commercial fertilizer is sold, offered, or exposed for sale the manufacturer, importer, or person who causes it to be sold or offered for sale within this State shall file with the director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station two certified copies of the statement prescribed in section 1, and shall deposit with said director a sealed glass jar or bottle containing not less than one pound of the fertilizer, accompanied by an affidavit that it is a fair average sample thereof.

"(3) The manufacturer, importer, agent, or seller of any commercial fertilizer shall pay on or before May 1, annually, to the director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, an analysis fee of ten dollars for each of the fertilizing ingredients contained or claimed to exist in said fertilizer: Provided, That when the manufacturer or importer shall have paid the fee herein required for any person acting as agent or seller for such manufacturer or importer, such agent or seller shall not be required to pay the fee prescribed in this section.

"(4) Every person in this State who sells or acts as local agent for the sale of any commercial fertilizer of whatever kind or price shall annually, or at the time of

becoming such seller or agent, report to the director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station his name and brand of said fertilizer, with the name and address of the manufacturer, importer, or party from whom such fertilizer was obtained, and shall, on demand of the director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, deliver to said director a sample suitable for analysis of any such fertilizer or manure then and there sold or offered for sale by said seller or agent.

"(5) No person or party shall sell, offer, or expose for sale, in this State, any pulverized leather, raw, steamed, roasted, or in any form, as a fertilizer or as an ingredient of any fertilizer or manure, without explicit printed certificate of the fact, such certificate to be conspicuously affixed to every package of such fertilizer or manure and to accompany every parcel or lot of the same.

"(6) Every manufacturer of fish guano, or fertilizers of which the principal ingredient is fish or fish mass from which the oil has been extracted, shall, before manufacturing or heating the same, and within thirty-six hours from the time such fish or mass has been delivered to him, treat the same with sulphuric acid or other chemicals, approved by the director of said experiment station, in such quantity as to arrest decomposition: Provided, however, That in lieu of such treatment such manufacturers may provide a means for consuming all smoke and vapors arising from such fertilizers during the process of manufacture.

"(7) Any person violating any provisions of the foregoing sections of this chapter shall be fined one hundred dollars for the first offense and two hundred dollars for each subsequent violation.

“(8) This chapter shall not affect parties manufacturing, importing, or purchasing fértilizer for their own private use, and not to sell in this State.

"(9) The director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station shall pay the analysis fees received by him into the treasury of the station, and shall cause one or more analyses of each fertilizer to be made and published annually. Said director is hereby authorized, in person or by deputy, to take samples for analysis from any lot or package of manure or fertilizer which may be in the possession of any dealer. "(10) The director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station shall, from time to time, as bulletins of said station may be issued, mail or cause to be mailed two copies, at least, of such bulletins to each post-office in the State."

NORTH CAROLINA FERTILIZER LAW (DIGEST).

The State board of agriculture is charged with the supervision of the trade in commercial fertilizers and with the enforcement and supervision of all laws and regulations which are or may be enacted in the State controlling the sale of such fertilizers. No commercial fertilizers shall be sold or offered for sale unless a tonnage charge of 20 cents per ton has been paid. The board of agriculture is authorized to reduce this tax to 15 cents per ton "when in their judgment it becomes expedient." The board may exempt "certain natural materials as may be deemed expedient." Fach barrel, package, or bag shall have attached a tag showing that the tax has been paid, which tag shall be issued by the commissioner of agriculture, according to regulations prescribed by the board of agriculture.

"The department of agriculture shall have power and authority at all times to have collected samples of any commercial fertilizer or fertilizing materials offered for sale in this State, and have the same analyzed, and such samples shall be taken from at least 10 per cent of the lot from which they may be selected. And whenever any commercial fertilizers or fertilizing material shall be analyzed, as required by law, and such analysis shall show the presence in such commercial fertilizer or fertilizing material of hair, hoof meal, horn, leather scraps, or other deleterious substances not available for plants, but which contains ingredients that go to make up the required or guaranteed analysis, publication shall be made in the monthly bulletir by the